Xen creatures
Throughout the Gman Squad, Freeman's Mind, and occasionally the Civil Protection machinima series, the Gmen and Freeman often find Xen creatures in their way, while Mike and Dave occasionally run into them in City 17. Gordon Freeman is dumbfounded by them at first, thinking them to be freaks of nature. He tries to negotiate with them, but due to the fact that they always attacked him, he now shoots them on site. Mike and Dave have rare encounters with them, but they are almost always hostile. The G-men usually kill them, but sometimes they believe that they are tame and are harmless. As a result, they often find themselves stuck in a situation with at least one of them dead. List of creatures Ichthyosaur An Alien creature found in water, the Ichthyosaur is more or less an alien version of earth's shark. It appears briefly in the G-Man Squad in the episode "Trams". While Clyde was attacking the G-Men, one of them managed to knock him off his tram into the water below. An Ichthyosaur proceeded to chase him and eat him. It also appears in Freeman's Mind. Freeman mistakes it for a normal shark when he sees it eat another scientist. He tries to go around it, but eventually falls into the water after a shark cage he was standing in broke. He frantically dodged until he was able to get out of the water and onto a catwalk, where he shot the creature several times with a shotgun. Snarks These biological weapons are used in the original Half-Life as a seeker weapon that seeks the nearest enemy that they can find within 15 seconds. In the Gman Squad, they are used as a test subject in measuring their effectiveness as a weapon (in the second episode). Headcrabs These are small, parasitic creatures, about the size of a chicken. They bite and latch on to people's heads, turning them into zombies. Freeman calls them "Face-Huggers", a reference to the Aliens ''series. He thinks of them as extremley annoying, due to the fact they kill all his co-workers and constantly scar his face by biting it. Beginning in the second episode of the G-man Squad, headcrabs appear around the facility. They are the ones responsible for creating the headcrab zombies out of the scientists. Some Gmen think of these pests as cute. Headcrab Zombie Created from the headcrab burrowing into the host's head and mutating the brain, zombies, formerly Black Mesa scientists, are seen by the Gmen as ''harmless (as seen in the third episode). They also run and fight these enemies in the second episode (which they shoot the zombies) and in the fourth episode (which they shoot and run ''them over). One particular zombie (in the multiplayer skin) has a recurring appearance with his signature line "You killed our friends!". Freeman at first thinks them to be "ghosts", but then realizes they are just monsters. He always avoids close contact with them for obvious reasons, and due to to their obviously hostile nature, shoots them or beats them to death whenever he sees them. Two variants of the standard zombie, the "fast zombies" and the "poison zombies" appear in the Civil Protection episode "Halloween Safety". They break into Mike and Dave's filming location at the end of the episode, and horribly injure them both. Bullsquid Bullsquids are terrestial carnivores, with the ability to spit a poison. In appearance, they look like a combination of a tiger's skin and a squid's tentacles. Freeman first encounters one in Episode 6. While at first thinking it to be helpful as it is killing headcrabs, he later becomes very mad at it when it spits poison on him (which he mistakes for snot, and appears to be immune to, likely because of his suit administering antidotes). He encounters many others throughout the series, mostly shooting them on sight. He calls them "Cthulhu Dogs" due to the tentacles on their face (a reference to the works of ''H.P. Lovecraft) and "Snot Monsters". He also appears to be intimadated a little by them, due to their large size and sharp teeth. A bullsquid appears once in Science that causes the platform to break when it lands on it, causing the Gmen to fall to their deaths. Tentacle This plant-like Xen creature can capture anything in reach and can only be killed by heavy munitions or fire, (as seen in Half-Life). It is very large (Freeman describes it as "a monster as tall as a building") deadly, and potent, despite being blind and relying on vibrations to detect prey. Freeman first runs into it in Episode 15, where he immediatley starts fearing it do to it killing a scientist and a guard in quite bloody fashions. The monster was largley responsible for Freeman's short mental collapse. He spends most of the time from episodes 15-19 fearing it, travelling around it, and avoiding it. It is finally killed when Freeman, against all odds, manages to avoid getting crushed, (unintentionally) turns on a rocket engine, and burns it to death while he laughs triumpanthly. The Gmen run into this monster in''GruntsGrunts, but cannot find a way to kill it before they are teleported out into Dust2 by a trap set by Mr. Z. Barnacle These creatures stick themselves to ceilings, waiting for anyone unaware to touch their tentacles. When prey touches their "tongue", they pull the tongue upward, dragging along their prey (and sometimes snapping their necks) until the latter reaches the "mouth" where the prey will be digested. In Freeman's Mind, he first encounters them in Episode 7, where he just reacts to them with shock, reffering to them as "Weird jellyfish things". When he inspects one in episode 8, he is immediatley disgusted by its eating habits and its tendency to barf up blood and meat. He is grabbed by one in Episode 9, and is strangled and caught off guard. However, he manages to shoot it before it can swallow him or snap his neck. In ''Science, a Gman finds himself being passed on to other barnacles after each barnacle gets killed by another Gman. Grunts humorously shows their foiled attempts to use the "tongue" as a way to follow other Gmen (in which one falls to death after trying to do so). It is interesting to note that what the Gmen try to do is only possible in Half-Life: Opposing Force '', since it is the only game that features a "barnacle gun" that acts as a grappling hook. Houndeyes These aliens are similar to dogs, except they have a thousand eyes, three legs, and the ability to blast enemies with a slow charging shock wave. Freeman first encounters these in episode 6. He is travelling through the facility and one teleports in front of him, which he promptly shoots. He then decides to try to negotiate with the next one, but the Houndeye blasts him with its sonic boom. Freeman freaks out, and shoots it twice. He proceeds to shoot them on sight throughout the rest of the series. He has many nicknames for them, including "Squeak toys from hell" (Episode 22) and "chirping maggots with legs". He also wishes to patent a game with them, where a bunch of soccer players run out and kick them to death, and kick their dead bodies into field goals. A ''Half Life 2 version of the Houndeye also appears in the Civil Protection episode "Morning Patrol". It ends up blasting Mike and Dave with its shock wave, launching them several feet and likely breaking some of their limbs. A dead Houndeye appears in the Gman Squad episode Science. Alien Grunt These are 8 foot tall, brown skinned aliens that shoot poisnous bees. They have 3 arms, potruding teeth, and posess much physical strength. They have so far appeared only in Trams. In their only known series appearance, they are enemies as a pair of Gmen go through a re-enactment of the famous game Doom. One appeared in Freeman's Mind episode 39 where Freeman is shocked by its appearance, saying it is as big as a linebacker, and seeing it as one of the more impressive aliens he has seen, and blows it up with a satchel charge when it chases him. Two more appeared in Freeman's mind episode 40. Vortigaunt Also known in the original game as Alien Slaves, these creatures fire bolts of electricity at their target at range, or claw when at close range. Freeman refers to them as "zappers", and is not so much scared of getting killed by them so much as simply annoyed by their shocks, which appear to be equivalent to taser shots. He constantly gets mad at them, and by Episode 9 (like all other aliens) he shoots them on sight. A brief scene in Grunts shows them fighting the Gman Squad and getting killed quickly. Gargantua A very large, 6 meter tall blue alien, it has flamethrowers for arms and is completley bulletproof. It requires many explosives, energy, or electricity to kill. It is worth noting that it was one of the few aliens Freeman was generally scared of, and one of the few that could kill him easily, as it seems most other aliens simply annoy him. The HECU tries unnsuccefully to kill it; it instead ends up killing the soldiers sent after it. Freeman first sees it in episode 21, but he gets intimidated by it and rushes through a door, instead hoping the military will finally do their jobs. They fail, and Freeman has to get through it to escape. He ends up almost getting burned to death by it, but kills it when he opens fire with his machine gun and turns on a power generator, electrocuting it to death and allowing him to escape on a train. Gonarch It is responsible for creating the iconic headcrab pests. A brief sequence shows the Gmen fighting it in both the opening and closing sequences of the first episode. Freeman thinks it is a god (as Gonarch's great survivability after dozens of damage). Nihilanth In the original game, it is responsible for creating the rift that caused the Black Mesa Incident, and is the lord of the Xenians. A brief sequence shows the Gmen fighting it in the Crossfire map (which cannot actually happen) in the first episode. The second episode's opening sequence shows them fighting it again, this time in the Nihilanth's own chamber. Freeman refers to him as "elder god" from Lovecraft's works in Episode 68, and in the end of battle against him Gordon wants to consume his power (as winner's award). Portrayal and perceival by G-men While the squad perceives some of them as harmless, they fight the more powerful ones. Snarks are occasionally used against other Gmen in the experimental segment of the second episode, while headcrabs are generally perceived as harmless except once (when headcrabs fall from the ceiling in Grunts). Zombies are humorously killed several times in Trams in the tram ride scene. They are mostly run over or hit by an explosion of barrels. Portryal and perceival by Gordon Freeman As stated above, Freeman originally was simply in shock about the aliens. He didn't understand their anatomy, and was disgusted and dumbfounded by them constantly attacking him and killing his co-workers. While at first he tries to negotiate with them, this proves pointless and by episode 9 he simply shoots all aliens on sight. For his reactions to each individual species, see above. Portrayal and perceival By Mike and Dave They rarely appear, but in all of their appearances, they are extremely hostile. Dave seems to show compassion for the Houndeye's, and prevented Mike from shooting it when it was first encountered. Mike on the other hand, recognizes the danger posed by the creatures, and will pull out his pistol on the sight of any of the Xenian species. It is interesting to note that this makes Mike the only character in any machinima to immediately recognize their hostile nature. Pictures Barancles.jpg|The barnacle as it appears in half life 1, and half life 2. Bullsquid.jpg|The bullsquid as it appears in Half Life 1. Headcrab.jpg|The headcrab in Half Life 1 (left) and Half Life 2 (right). HL1 Vort.jpg|The vortigunt as it appears in Half Life. Gargantua.jpg|The Gargantua in Half Life. HL2 Vort.jpg|The vortigaunt as it appears in Half Life 2. Houndeye.jpg|The Houndeye as it appears in Half Life. Zombies.jpg|A zombie from HL1 (left) and HL2 (right). Tentacles.jpg|The Tentacles from HL1, dug into the ground in the rocket engine test lab. Nihilanth.jpg|The Nihilianth in HL1. Alien Grunt.jpg|An Alien Grunt External links *Combine Overwiki, a related wiki, for more detailed information on these creatures Category:Gman Squad characters Category:Gman Squad Category:Freeman's Mind